ByGarry Rayno, InDepthNH.org |October 2, 2017

During Monday's Northern Pass adjudicative hearing before the Site Evaluation Committee, Grafton County Attorney Lara Saffo questions members of an Eversource construction panel. From left to right, Lynn Frazier, traffic designer; Samuel Johnson, lead project manager; and Kenneth Bowes, Eversource Vice President of Engineering.

By GARRY RAYNO,InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — Landowners along the buried section of the Northern Pass Transmission project may not know the final line placement until state transportation officials decide where it may be placed under state roads.

At Monday’s adjudicative hearing on the $1.6 billion project stretching from Pittsburg to Deerfield, Grafton County Attorney Lara Saffo pressed project officials to reach out to abutting landowners in areas where the layout changed. At this point, 60 of the 192-mile line are supposed to be buried underground, with most of that from Bethlehem to Bridgewater.

Saffo, who represents the Grafton County Commissioners in the proceedings, asked Eversource Vice President of Engineering Kenneth Bowes to send landowners new survey reports for the state right-of-way road boundaries so they will know if their properties would be impacted by design changes.

Bowes said he would consider her request after the Department of Transportation decides on requests to bury portions of the 1,090 megawatt line under sections of state roadways.

Project developer Eversource needs the exception requests because the state Utility Accommodation Manual forbids burying utility lines under state roads and recommends they be as close to the right-of-way edge as possible.

“Private landowners left a public hearing at Loon Mountain understanding the line would go under the road and not into adjoining land and the application says that,” Saffo said, “and now you do not want to include landowners until a final approval of a different design?’’

Bowes replied he would want to know the DOT’s decision and any attached conditions before sending out the information. He also said he does not know the scope and scale of such a mailing, and wants to know that before committing.

“The plans shown at a specific public hearing were current at the time,” Bowes said, “with the best information available.”

Saffo asked if a landowner wants to know what will happen on his land, should he consider the entire state right-of-way to be fair game for the project.

Bowes urged landowners to reach out to Eversource and officials will show landowners the initial design, the exception request if there is one and the “highly probable design” based on what the DOT has decided to date.

“We want to be able to show them something more concrete than ‘that makes sense, that is where it will go,’” said Samuel Johnson, lead project manager.

But Saffo said if a landowner objects and developers move the line or location, that will impact an adjoining property owner.

“Most property owners are concerned about what happens from their front door to the pavement,” Saffo said. “Their home is their primary asset.”

Bowes said that is true almost everywhere. “We’re not proposing any taking of property or buildings,” he said, noting the work would be done within the state right-of-way or on property the company already owns.

As part of its application, Eversource asks the Site Evaluation Committee to authorize the DOT to review and decide any exception requests for burying the line under town-owned roads along the 8-mile section of new line in Pittsburg and Stewartstown.

Committee member William Oldenburg, who represents the DOT on the panel, said his agency may not want to take on that responsibility for local roads.

Bowes said resources may be an issue for towns and having the DOT make the decision would provide consistency along the entire route. And he said some provisions would be needed so a town could not delay the project by refusing to act on a request.

He said the agency has put the issue aside until the SEC decides whether to delegate its jurisdiction to the DOT.

Bowes said the developer would be willing to indemnify the state and towns for any additional costs associated with the request.

Committee counsel Michael Iacopino said there are other options that could be considered such as hiring an outside contractor at the company’s expense to oversee the work on town roads or for the SEC to decide and enforce it.

Attorney Robert Baker said he assumes the developers have not submitted the maps to local municipalities for their review, comment or determination, and Bowes said that is correct.

If the SEC determines local boards will need to approve work done to bury the line under town roads, Baker asked, how much longer would that process take than submitting the requests to the DOT?

Bowes said it would add another month to the process. He expects the process to move fairy quickly once the additional surveying work is done.

The agency wants the developer to do additional work to better define the state right-of-way boundaries in order to determine a number of exception requests, saying in many cases the information submitted by Eversource involved approximations.

The company submitted about 190 exception requests, with 118 currently under discussion including 20 that have been approved with conditions. Agency work on the requests has been suspended until the survey report is done in about five to seven weeks.

The project to bring Hydro-Quebec electricity to New England was first proposed seven years ago. The SEC recently delayed making its final decision for five months pushing its deadline until the end of February, 2018.

The committee added 31 more adjudicative hearings to be held at 49 Donovan St., in Concord from October through the end of the year.

Eversource had hoped to have all federal and state permits by the end of the year with construction to begin next year and the transmission line finished by the end of 2020.

If it receives all its permits, Johnson said Monday that construction could begin in April.

On Tuesday, the committee will visit project sites from Plymouth to Deerfield. Adjudicative hearings resume Friday.

As a public service, InDepthNH.org publishes the websites for Northern Pass and its opponents at the end of every story along with information about how the adjudicative process works to site new transmission projects and our previous hearing coverage. Sign up for our free Friday newsletter for Northern Pass and other news that matters in NH.

How The Process Works Before The Site Evaluation Committee

Northern Pass’ website explains the hearings process as follows:

The SEC holds adjudicative hearings to consider and weigh evidence. The applicant has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that a Certificate should be issued. Expert witnesses submit testimony under oath and are subject to cross-examination.

Persons seeking to intervene must file a petition which demonstrates that the “petitioner’s rights, duties, privileges, immunities or other substantial interest might be affected by the proceeding.”

According to Northern Pass’ website: After an extensive adjudicative proceeding, the SEC will issue a Certificate of Site and Facility “if it finds that an applicant has adequate financial, technical, and managerial capability, that a project will not interfere with the orderly development of the region, that the project will not have an unreasonable adverse effect on aesthetics, historic sites, air and water quality, the natural environment, and public health and safety, and that the project will serve the public interest.”

Eversource had hoped to have all federal and state permits by the end of the year with construction to begin next year and the transmission line finished by the end of 2020.

Members of the subcommittee that will decide Northern Pass by a majority vote are Chairman Martin Honigberg, PUC, presiding officer; Commissioner Kathryn Bailey, PUC; Dir. Craig Wright, Department of Environmental Services; Christopher Way, Department of Business and Economic Affairs; William Oldenburg, Department of Transportation; Patricia Weathersby, public member; and Rachel Dandeneau, alternate public member.

InDepthNH.org’s comprehensive coverage of the SEC hearings on Northern Pass.

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